Eye On Nature

Readers' observations on nature.

I watched a stoat on the machair emerge from a rabbit hole and gyrate in a weird dance, jumping and rolling on its back like a dog. Then it put its paws on top of a thistle flower.

David Cabot, Louisburgh, Co Mayo

Stoats will dance to mesmerise a rabbit. But mammalogist, Michael Clark, says that the frustration of losing a rabbit sends a stoat into a furious dance accompanied by dreadful language.

I saw two jackdaws using a sheep's neck as a perch on a treeless part of the Curragh. The sheep was holding her face up and out as though to maintain an accommodating neck angle for the jackdaws. It was like cattle egrets in South Africa.

John Colleran, Pollardstown, Co Kildare

The jackdaws may have been doing the work of egrets - removing parasites.

Summer gardens were once full of harvestmen, now I don't see any.

Why?

Ronnie Farrelly, Ballybrack, Co Dublin

Spraying of pesticides is the greatest contributor to the disappearance of harvestmen, but this was a tricky year for insects.